Voters: Serious judging to do in the primary

The sun-splashed August primary election will have a far-reaching role in determining what judges fill courtrooms in Olympia, thanks to a quirk in Washington state election laws.

Any candidate for Washington State Supreme Court or King County Superior Court who gets more than 50 percent of the primary vote is deemed elected and appears unopposed on the November ballot.

Hence, the two-person contest between appointed State Supreme Court Justice Steve Gonzalez and his challenger, Port Orchard attorney Bruce Danielson, will be decided by voters who cast ballots by 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

Gonzalez has been campaigning all over the state, piling up endorsements from court colleagues and groups ranging from the Association of Washington Business to the State Labor Council. A former King County judge, he scored highly in the bar association rating by attorneys who tried cases in his courtroom.

Danielson has been a no-show at forums ranging from the King County Bar Association to KCTS-TV.

It doesn’t always matter. Clueless on judicial contests, Washington voters have at times opted for a familiar-sounding Anglo name. A little-known lawyer named Charles Johnson once knocked off the chief justice of the Supreme Court (and proved to be a conscientious, well-regarded judge).

The open seat on the Supreme Court — Justice Tom Chambers is retiring — has drawn a four-person field. Ex-Supreme Richard Sanders is known due to his pungent personality, libertarian views, sympathy for defendants and partisanship: He was warmup act for Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.

How to choose from the three others? Bruce Hilyer is a veteran King County Superior Court judge with lots of support from judges, and from prosecutors leery of Sanders. Sheryl Gordon McCloud has years of experience arguing appellate cases before the Supremes and other appellate judges. John Ladenburg served as both Pierce County Prosecutor and Pierce County Executive.

Incumbent Justice Susan Owens has drawn two challengers, but few people have seen either Douglas McQuaid or Scott Stafne on the campaign trail. Owens is unusually relaxed and earthy for a judge, a legacy of her years as a district judge in remote Forks.

How to choose? Voters often turn to friends or lawyers they know for clues in races they know nothing about.

A Langley, Wash., retiree named Paul Fournier has made it his business to look closely at judicial candidates, and finds himself at election time advising as many as three-dozen friends and neighbors. (Both Island County Superior Court judges are running unopposed.)

In King County, several superior court races will be decided on Tuesday.

The Position 28 race pits senior deputy prosecutor Sean O’Donnell against Hong Tran, an attorney who has spent two decades working with poor client. She has strenuously objected to a “not qualified” rating from the Bar Association.

In Position 30, 12-year incumbent Doug North, a top performer in attorney evaluations, is being challenged by veteran land use attorney Kimberly Allen. Allen notes that, due to North’s extended illness, “this bench has been empty for more than six months.” North describes himself as recovered and “re-energized.”

The Position 46 race gives voters a particularly strong choice. Senior deputy prosecutor Gary Ernsdorff, a specialist in domestic abuse and violence, is running against Judy Ramseyer, an attorney with extensive experience in juvenile corrections and onetime law clerk to the late U.S. District Court JudgE Bill Dwyer.

One contest, for Position 42, is not likely to be decided in the primary.

Incumbent Judge Christopher Washington, rated lowest of anybody on the King County Superior Court bench by attorneys who practice before him, has drawn three challengers.

Friends from Canada, or other countries, shake their heads at all the choices Americans just make in elections.

In Washington, however, the state has been lucky in its judging, from a first-rate federal bench to state and county judges who have successfully handled complex litigation.